Partners

There are a number of definitions of science, as both a process and a body of knowledge. At root, it’s an effort to understand the world around us via observation and experimentation. When you think about it, that’s an awful lot for one desk at The Conversation to cover – here’s a roundup of some of the stories we chose to focus on during 2015.

In a year when we reported that only half of biomedical research studies stand up to scrutiny and only a third of published psychology research could be replicated, are you concerned your trusty science and technology editor is feeling dismayed about the state of the field? Never fear, she is not! These articles pointed out ways to reinforce scientific standards and make the research publishing process more rigorous.

The quest for reproducible scientific truth continues… and we covered hundreds of cool stories that drive the point home.

And we covered some citizen science initiatives, when the pros rely on the rest of us to help out on big projects. One used people’s judgment and their home computers to classify millions of wildlife photos from the Serengeti. Another calls for dog owners to collect data on their four-legged best buds and send it in along with doggie drool samples – in an effort to nail down connections between genes and behavior.

Message received! You like stories about relationships, space, food and diet. My mandate for 2016: find a space-based eating plan that will help you find the love of your life here on Earth (unless we can figure out how to date extraterrestrials in the year ahead). I’m starting the hunt for academics researching this topic now…. Stay tuned!